About Cat

Cat Sirota moved to Middle Earth (known informally as New Zealand) at the age of 12. The moody, romantic landscape inspired her passion for fantasy novels and would go on to shape her own fiction writing, setting the scene for lush worldbuilding, dark characters, and satisfying plot twists.

Every morning, at 5am, long before her rambunctious household has risen, Cat pours a cup of coffee and gets to work. When she isn’t writing and editing, she’s lost in the stories of authors like LJ Andrews, Penn Cole, and Jennifer L. Armentrout. For Cat, only one thing trumps the magical alchemy of reading, and that is crafting new portals of escapism in her own stories.

F.A.Q

Everywhere. For example, with Forgiving Darkness, I took inspiration from my childhood, where I always played the wicked witch in imaginary games with my cousins. It got me thinking, what if she wasn’t that bad? what if she was forced to be bad? Combine that with my love for history (I’m a massive history geek) that led me to discover the Scottish folktale of the Norse King’s Dark Sorcerous Daughter, and presto the story was born.  

For clarity purposes, I don’t have Scottish heritage, but have always loved Celtic folklore. I do have a lot of English, German and French roots, with family trees dating back to the 1700s.  

Book one in the Binary Worlds duology, is finished and ready to go. All going well, I’m aiming to have it out late 2024 or early 2025.  

Yes, please! Subscribe to my website and newsletter for updates on this. I’ll also post on my social media (so follow me too) with calls for ARC readers. I haven’t yet decided on what ARC readers will get, signed books, swag etc, so stay tuned for it.

We’re all writers; whether it be emails, business documents, essays, or journalist pieces, there are opportunities to write all around us. I’ve always been writing, but I only started experimenting with creative writing in 2020. I took a shot course (see details below) to sharpen my skills. But writing is such a vast world, and I needed guidance, so I joined Louise Dean’s The Novelry in 2022. I cannot credit the team at The Novelry enough in helping me navigate the ins and outs of writing. From creating the ideas to developing your first draft to honing your editing skills, they have support every step of the way. If you’re an aspiring author, no matter the genre, I strongly recommend looking into The Novelry.

I don’t have a formal degree in English Literature, but to aid my journey into the creative writing world, I took a short course on creative writing at Oxford University. This was a great initial start and gave me the foundations to work off.  

I did my undergraduate and Master’s in Business, which required a lot of formal business writing. This again got me used to storytelling, structure, and persuasive language.  

Routine. A routine is paramount for me to be able to fit everything in. Depending on where I am at with my writing will determine my routine. For example, if I am in first draft mode, I write from scratch best before my family gets up, so I’ll start my day at 5 am and write but then use my evenings for reading, plotting, editing or any of the business side writing. If I’m out of first draft mode, I’ll use that time for other things like sleeping or if I am motivated enough to exercise. 

Sign Up

Subscribe and receive exclusive updates and extra morsels of goodness.